Overmatter: sweet success

High-margin macarons
High-margin macarons

Anyone who has, like Overmatter, found themselves with their nose pressed up against the elegant windows of the Ladurée shop in London’s Burlington Arcade, will know that macaron making is a beautiful business – and also a high-margin one.

Enveloped in suitably swishy packaging a box of 12 will set you back a cool £29.

Imagine, then, how much these stylish French folk could charge if it was possible to print a personalised message or image on these luxury sweetmeats?

Hopefully DTM Print, manufacturer of Eddie the Edible Printer, is already tapping up the Ladurée top brass. Eddie lays claim to being the world’s “first and only” desktop printer that can print directly onto cookies and similar items using processes that are food safe certified, with edible ink that has EU and FDA approvals.

A new manual feed recently announced allows Eddie to print onto larger food items including – you guessed it – macarons thanks to a specially designed tray.

Future developments include a tray with grids and pins that can accommodate pretty much any shape. Eddie can also print onto other items such as iced biscuits, marshmallows and chocolate lollipops. In short, this machine is an utter wonder of the modern world.

What’s more, an Eddie costs a mere €2,995 (£2,600) – or the equivalent of about 23 Ladurée Prestige 54 boxes. Sweet!